The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee has accused the Bureau of Public Enterprise of wasting about N10 billion in registering two companies for the Nigeria Postal Service, only for the companies to fold up a year after incorporation.
This is just as the committee urged the Joint Admission and Matriculations Board, and the Investment and Security Tribunal to refund the sum of N3.46bn and N6.33 million, respectively, into the Consolidated Revenue Fund within 30 days and tender evidence to that effect.
The committee Chairman, Bamidele Salam, who represents Ede North/Ede South/ Egbedore/Ejigbo Federal Constituency, Osun State, stated this on Monday at the resumed investigative hearing of the panel at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja.
Recall that the two companies, NIPOST Transport and Logistics Limited, and NIPOST Property, took off in May 2023 and folded up via a presidential directive in May 2024.
On Monday, Head of Finance and Accounts, BPE, who represented the bureau’s Director-General, Imam Rilwan, told the committee that while about N10bn was given to the two companies for their take-off, about N400m was given to the BPE to prepare the ground for the commencement of operation of both companies.
Rilwan said the decision to register the two companies for NIPOST was approved in 2017, paving the way for the BPE to expend about N423m for registration and other activities required for the commencement of operations by the two companies.
He said when the money was released in 2023, the bureau had to recover its expenses, noting that the N423m given to the BPE was used to rent office accommodation, adding that all property belonging to the two companies had been officially handed over to the NIPOST management.
This explanation did not sit well with Salam, who said, “Spending money from government coffers before the money is released is a clear violation of the provisions of the Public Procurement Act.
“This is not a good development. The DG of BPE, Ayodeji Gbeleyi, should personally appear before this committee on Wednesday, September 11, with relevant documents relating to these transactions.”
While ruling on the presentation by the JAMB, Salam said their refusal to reply to the letters from the Fiscal Responsibility Commission informing them of their liabilities was an admittance of their indebtedness to the Federal Government.
The Head of Monitoring and Evaluation, FRC, Bello Gulmare, had told the committee that the examination body was defaulting in its remittance, stating that the JAMB remitted only 25 per cent of its Internally Generated Revenue instead of 50 per cent.
He said the commission wrote to the Board in April, informing them of their indebtedness and another letter in August, adding that the Board did not respond to any of the letters.
But JAMB’s Director of Finance and Account, Mufutau Bello, who represented the Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, said the Board was not receiving any capital and overhead funding from the government and was, therefore, required to remit 25 per cent of their IGR.
He said there was a government circular that exempted them from remitting 50 per cent of their IGR to the government, a claim that was disputed by the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.
He said the Board has a letter from the Ministry of Finance granting them a waiver from paying the 50 per cent waiver as he insisted that the FRC was trying to impose on them revenue they were not supposed to pay.
Ruling on the submission, the committee chairman frowned at the refusal of JAMB to respond to the letters noting that government business is run based on correspondences.
He said the Board should pay into the government coffers, the amount standing against them within 30 days.
